peHUB First Read

*  Fed chair Krugman?

* Inside the Citi-Terra Firma battle

* Paul Volcker says that he has been discussing his proposals with Obama for the past year. Now who suggested he was out of the loop? Oh yeah, Paul Volcker.

* Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher (despite the Sam’s Club layoff news), London rises early, European shares rebound on banks, the Nikkei keeps slipping and China shares fall.

* Mike Hirschland seeks conflict

* Jason Calcanis has moved on from fee-charging angel groups, and refocused his ire on a fee-charging Internet audience analytics company.

* Sarah Lacy bangs the smaller VC fund drum. I accept her premise, and the data clearly shows that smaller funds historically outperform larger ones (true of buyout funds too). My question, however, is how the smaller fund size crowd plans to integrate cleantech and pharma investments. These deals often are capital-intensive — see today’s Better Place news — and are not compatible with a Y Combinator model. Does VC abandon these sectors, or simply bifurcate along their lines? Or just keep ignoring the issue?

* Marc Chandler of Brown Brothers Harriman: What ails Greece ails Europe (.pdf)

* Mark Gimein says the Volcker rule would be fine, if it actually addressed an underlying cause of bank failure.